Insider Selling: Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) Insider Sells $6,165,969.72 in Stock

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) insider Molly Benson sold 17,196 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.57, for a total transaction of $6,165,969.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 30,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,876,862.38. This trade represents a 36.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Marathon Petroleum Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Marathon Petroleum stock opened at $363.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The company has a 50-day moving average of $306.35 and a 200 day moving average of $259.44. The firm has a market cap of $106.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.49, a PEG ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 0.52. Marathon Petroleum Corporation has a 1 year low of $161.93 and a 1 year high of $367.60.

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The oil and gas company reported $17.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $14.27 by $3.46. Marathon Petroleum had a net margin of 5.48% and a return on equity of 31.96%. The business had revenue of $51.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.96 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 53.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Marathon Petroleum Corporation will post 46.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Marathon Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Marathon Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.75%.

Institutional Trading of Marathon Petroleum

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MPC. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Marathon Petroleum by 36,834.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 128,810,637 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $32,933,016,000 after purchasing an additional 128,461,884 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum during the 2nd quarter valued at $6,648,958,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,029,611,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Marathon Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth $472,312,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Marathon Petroleum in the second quarter worth $621,832,000. 76.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MPC. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Marathon Petroleum from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Marathon Petroleum from $233.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $335.00 price target on Marathon Petroleum and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 12th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Marathon Petroleum from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Marathon Petroleum from $289.00 to $321.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Marathon Petroleum presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $312.50.

Marathon Petroleum Company Profile

Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: MPC) is a U.S.-based downstream energy company engaged principally in the refining, marketing, supply and transportation of petroleum products. The company was formed through a spin-off from Marathon Oil in 2011 and operates an integrated system of refining and logistics assets that support the production and distribution of transportation fuels and other refined petroleum products.

Marathon Petroleum’s operations include refining crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt and other specialty products, as well as managing the distribution and storage infrastructure needed to move those products to market.